London National Rail travel cheaper from Jan - Oyster cards accepted on National Rail

For those in London who travel using National Rail, Oyster cards will be accepted on National Rail from 2 Jan 2010.

In most cases, this means that Oyster PAYG fares will be much cheaper than the corresponding National Rail ticket.

Scroll to the bottom of the linked page (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/13688.aspx) under the title "Rail" to see examples of the cheaper fares. This will particularly help those travelling from zones 4-6 into Central London.

Just had a look at sample fares, I'm in Zone 2 so to get to London Terminals it's £3.30 at the moment for off-peak return. With Oyster, it's £1.70 single, So errr.... 10p more, but maybe that includes the usual January rises?

24th Nov 2009

About time (Oyster machines have been sitting around waiting for endless months at National Rail stations), and a positive sign moving forward.

The sooner National Rail stops ripping often London commuters the better. BBC London mentioned that Oyster daily caps will apply, making it near impossible for National Rail to rort commuters as they do now.

2nd May 2010

Been using Oyster from Croydon to London for 3 months now - there is no saving, its the same price, its also a pain getting Oyster topped up before every journey, & I've been overcharged. So I've gone back to using paper tickets & will continue to do so until there's a saving. So much for all that investment, its just plain inconvenient to shuffle money from one card to another.